Wellcome is the biggest philanthropic funder in the United Kingdom, with a mighty £37.6 billion (around $50.5 billion) endowment. We take a look at what it funds.
Also in this edition: All the latest from the 80th United Nations General Assembly, and the funders reaffirming their commitment to localization.
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What can I say except you’re Wellcome
Wellcome — previously the Wellcome Trust — has a huge and growing endowment, which it has used over the years to fund a huge variety of health causes (as well as an art collection).
It remains largely a funder of health research, but in recent years, it’s focused increasingly on development issues, with more cash going to causes such as the health impacts of climate change.
In our most recent research, my colleague Alecsondra Kieren Si looks at the organizations it funds.
Read: The top grantees of Wellcome (Pro)
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Funding activity
We publish tenders, grants, and other funding announcements on our Funding Platform. Here are some of those viewed the most in the past 10 days.
The Asian Development Bank has approved $77 million in funding to increase the quantity and improve the quality of nurses and midwives in Turkmenistan.
The Caribbean Development Bank has announced a $350,000 grant to empower micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, or MSMEs, in Barbados.
The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has invited organizations to submit proposals in examining the effectiveness of the U.K.’s higher education partnerships in East Africa.
The United Nations Development Programme has launched a grant for innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy-related projects in Moldova.
The World Bank has approved a new project to increase jobs through inclusive digital access in Zambia.
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INGOs speak
Last week was the high-level week of the 80th United Nations General Assembly, and we heard from a huge range of speakers at Devex Impact House — our event on the sidelines of the gathering, which enjoyed its busiest year with thousands of attendees.
Among the more interesting speakers on the subject of funding were the CEOs of several of the largest U.S. INGOs, including Oxfam, CARE, FHI 360 and Save the Children, who offered some insight into how the last year has affected their future strategies.
But that’s not all. For those interested in UNGA, we produced a daily reporters’ notebook and a series of in-depth analyses, all of which are available on our focus page.
Read: All the news from UNGA80
Rescission decision
The U.S. Supreme Court has handed an early defeat to aid organizations, saying they do not have standing to challenge President Donald Trump’s decision to hand back aid money to Congress through a “pocket rescission” mechanism.
At the time of writing, it’s not entirely clear how final that decision is, but it’s a major blow for a sector that’s suffered plenty in the past eight months.
Read: Supreme Court rules that Trump administration can let foreign aid expire
No local letup
Last year, localization was identified by many organizations as their top priority. But now, with the current funding chaos, the issue has unsurprisingly dropped down the agenda. So it’s interesting to hear that it’s remained top of mind — or near it, at least — among a group of the sector’s largest funders, who last week reported continued progress on the subject.
There are caveats, of course. It’s a self-selecting survey, so it likely includes the pioneers and excludes the laggards. And those who have reported results are effectively marking their own homework, so we have to take what they say with a pinch of salt. But even the existence of such a report — in an environment where there is certainly little institutional pressure — could be seen as encouraging by advocates of localization.
Read: Now USAID is gone, do foundations still care about localization? (Pro)
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About the author
David Ainsworth@daveainsworth4
David Ainsworth is business editor at Devex, where he writes about finance and funding issues for development institutions. He was previously a senior writer and editor for magazines specializing in nonprofits in the U.K. and worked as a policy and communications specialist in the nonprofit sector for a number of years. His team specializes in understanding reports and data and what it teaches us about how development functions.
